"Ten to Spend" is a special holiday shopping feature designed to help you save time and money during the busy gift-giving season. Hot Topic is having a great 50 percent off sale, offering music T-shirts starting at $3.49, novelty tees and shoes for $4.99 and denim starting at $6.99. There also are accessories and jewelry on sale, too. Teens and Twentysomethings on your list will appreciate these hip fashions. Check out this Cobra Starship Brains tee for $4.99. It was $20. Click here for the deal.

Delray's legal battle with Waste Management has some commission candidates talking trash in anticipation of Tuesday's election. The controversial subject surfaced in the last election and has re-emerged this election cycle, with just as much fervor from residents and commission candidates. With support from incumbent Angeleta Gray, the former City Commission voted in September 2012 to extend its $65 million garbage service contract with Waste Management until 2021 - without sending it to bid. That decision didn't sit well with newly elected Mayor Cary Glickstein and Commissioner Shelly Petrolia, who crusaded to keep their campaign promises of revisiting that vote.

Joshua Benson, 27, is a Delray Beach supermarket cashier. Martin West, 46, of Davie, owns a human resources and staffing company with his wife. Stacy Sylvain, 19, is a community college student living in North Miami. One's a Democrat, one's a Republican, and the third is an independent-no party affiliation voter. They seem to have little in common, politically or otherwise. But all three had a moment in the spotlight last week as fans and foes of Obamacare try to influence the 2014 elections.

Joshua Benson, 27, is a Delray Beach supermarket cashier. Martin West, 46, of Davie, owns a human resources and staffing company with his wife. Stacy Sylvain, 19, is a community college student living in North Miami. One's a Democrat, one's a Republican, and the third is an independent-no party affiliation voter. They seem to have little in common, politically or otherwise. But all three had a moment in the spotlight last week as fans and foes of Obamacare try to influence the 2014 elections.

I think the answer to why it is so hot this summer lies in looking at what has changed since I moved here in 1954: tall condos and office buildings block the sea breeze from moving inland and acres of asphalt and concrete cover the ground, absorbing the solar energy, only to be released at night, thus keeping the evening temperatures elevated. While I realize that progress and growth are inevitable, I am beginning to think that we have outsmarted ourselves. We have created an asphalt frying pan surrounded by tall buildings.

COCONUT CREEK - On big-screen televisions on the walls, news reports featured video clips of the story. Around them, teammates, friends and parents chatted. Saturday morning as 50 of Broward County 's top high school football prospects gathered at Bru's Room for Sun Sentinel Varsity Media Day, the topic of several conversations remained the scandal involving the University of Miami football program. Many of the athletes in attendance have received some form of interest from the Hurricanes program.

Looking for the place to buy some Marilyn Manson T-shirts? An eyebrow ring? Green hair dye? Hot Topic is the place. Hot Topic, based in Pomona, Calif., expects to open a store at Coral Square Mall on Nov. 12 carrying merchandise for punks, ravers and Gothic and heavy metal fans. Now, I did not know all those things were still in style. But apparently in the '90s, nothing, with the possible exception of Joan Collins-style shoulder pads, is out of style. You even find swing-inspired fashions in the store, which if you've seen the Gap commercials, you know is back.

County voters probably won't have to grapple with it on their November ballot. But a much-debated plan to bankroll schools by raising the sales tax by a half-cent remains a hot topic. The Alliance of Delray Residential Associations explores the subject anew at a free forum on Wednesday. The guest speakers will be school board member Paulette Burdick and Deputy Schools Superintendent Philip Rohr. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. at the South County Civic Center, 16700 Jog Road. For more information, call Alliance President Bert Mehl at 561-495-6662.

City employee pensions were a hot topic already, with the high cost to taxpayers. So it doesn't help that Fort Lauderdale's General Employees Retirement System lost more than $600,000 in a company that is accused of securities fraud. Taxpayers prop up that pension fund if it suffers losses. The City Commission agreed last night to hire an outside lawyer for a class action lawsuit againt the Russian based firm they say is responsible for their six figure losses. Fort Lauderdale will be the lead plaintiff in the case.

Backlash from the recent departure of Blanche Ely's basketball coach, Melvin Randall, has made its way to the football field. The effect was evident as Ely played at the sixth annual Miami Dolphins 7-on-7 high school football tournament on Saturday in Plantation. At a Broward County School Board meeting on Friday, the issue of Randall's abrupt departure was discussed. Parents of athletes, including football players, are eager for answers. "My mom is very involved. She actually had a meeting with the school board Friday and they are going to have a follow-up soon.

And you thought you needed a massage. How about your horse, cowboy? Learn about holistic equine care, training and nutrition at the South Florida Horse Expo at the Bergeron Rodeo Arena in Davie from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 8 and 9. "This is an event for serious horse people," said event organizer Steven Wolf. "One woman has made a massage blanket for horses. Another man does barefooting hoof care. " Entry fee is $10 for adults, $5 for kids 7 to 13. For information, call 954-654-3757 or email info@eeof.net.

The hot topic of how to pay for school cops will be the primary focus of a public meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m. The Broward Legislative Delegation meeting, scheduled to end at 4:30 p.m., will take place in commission chambers at the Governmental Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale, 115 South Andrews Ave., Room 422. State Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, has floated the idea of a new property tax that would pay for police at all public schools in...

It was a full house and lots of candidates at April's West Boca Community Council meeting as members were updated on the 2012 legislative session in Tallahassee. "Redistricting will be the big issue in the next two or three weeks," State Sen. Maria Sachs, a Democrat covering District 30, said at Boca Lago Country Club the evening of April 10. The lines for the districts that politicians represent are redrawn every 10 years, she said. Who would get to redraw the lines was an issue that went to the state Supreme Court, she said.

Re Stephen Goldstein's column, "What will the Republican losers do?" on Oct. 30: I am reminded of the 2000 presidential election cycle, in which then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush defeated incumbent Vice President Al Gore. Of course, media pundits like Goldstein were calling the election heavily for Gore. Indeed, media outlets such as CBS News declared Gore the winner, hence the famous recount and Supreme Court decision. While recent polls have stated Barack Obama is doing well, especially with African Americans and middle-class, college-educated voters, there are many still feeling the effects of the previous recession, and there is still a discontented active protest movement via the tea party and Occupy Wall Street crowd.

The GOP makes no secret of what it would do if we elect a Republican president. Some Republican governors have already implemented their plans, cutting teachers, police and firefighters and trying to do away with their unions. They have never done anything to benefit the middle class. They are strictly for the wealthy. They would love to privatize everything. Privatization equals profit. They should not be allowed to profit from necessary programs like Social Security and Medicare. I cannot believe that their candidate could win on the platform they propose.

Did Obama cave in to Trump by releasing birth certificate? "Why didn't he release it before? Because no other president has ever had to. That's why. And now that's he's released it, now the conspiracists want him to release more and more. " Joekuh Today's Buzz is a daily online feature where readers comment on the hot topic of the day. The question above generated the most comments this week. Go to SunSentinel.com and click on "Today's Buzz" to join the conversation, Monday through Friday.

Should George W. Bush join President Obama at ground zero today? "The entire nation felt the fear and pain of September 11 and the entire nation felt justice was served on May 1, and I think Mr. Bush is wrong in not attending. " Just someone Today's Buzz is a daily online feature where readers comment on the hot topic of the day. The question above generated the most comments this week. Go to SunSentinel.com and click on "Today's Buzz" to join the conversation, Monday through Friday.

It's amazing that a liberal like Lou Lifson doesn't recognize the other apparent irony in his Reader's View condemning Republicans. He blames an "uneducated, ignorant citizenry" for voting out the liberals "who will work to strengthen public education. " Of course, as a public school teacher, he acknowledges no responsibility for this lack of education and intelligence of the recipients of public education. I think now we understand the real problem. Barry M. Kaplan, Boca Raton Tea party not the enemy Those individuals who make up the tea party do not agree on all issues.

COCONUT CREEK - On big-screen televisions on the walls, news reports featured video clips of the story. Around them, teammates, friends and parents chatted. Saturday morning as 50 of Broward County 's top high school football prospects gathered at Bru's Room for Sun Sentinel Varsity Media Day, the topic of several conversations remained the scandal involving the University of Miami football program. Many of the athletes in attendance have received some form of interest from the Hurricanes program.